Indiana basketball fans battle for best season tickets

Nov. 27, 2012
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Forward Cody Zeller, center, and the Indiana Hoosiers are the top ranked team in the nation. It takes donations of $5,000 to $20,000 for non-students to sit in one of the 1,300 court level seats. / Debby Wong, US PRESSWIRE

by Michael Pointer, USA TODAY Sports

by Michael Pointer, USA TODAY Sports

Chris Smith knew that Indiana University basketball tickets were going to be hot this season, with the Hoosiers ranked No. 1 in the nation and marquee games such as Tuesday night's against North Carolina.

What Smith didn't know was exactly how to keep his season tickets in the same location at Assembly Hall as last season, or maybe even make them a little better.

Such are the mysteries of "Priority Points."

It's no secret that at the elite levels of college sports, where athletic department expenses range from about $50 to $130 million per year, schools such as IU pit donors against each other for access to better seats at games.

But that gets complicated as schools try to raise more and more money, while rewarding loyalty and keeping fans and even the school's former athletes happy.

For non-students to sit in one of the 1,300 court level seats at Assembly Hall, it takes a donation of $5,000 to $20,000. Those donors can purchase two tickets.

To determine where 8,000 other non-students sit, IU uses a points-based system, often called "Priority Points," a form of which is used by every other school in the Big Ten Conference.

IU awards points based on donations to various school programs and consecutive years buying tickets to not just basketball but football as well. It's elaborate enough that there's a monthly newsletter explaining it.

"I'm sure longtime supporters think you should weigh loyalty more," IU deputy athletic director Scott Dolson said. "The people that give more probably think there should be more a balance with that. But I think people appreciate that it's a transparent system. It's not a 'good old boy' system that depends on who you know."

Smith, who owns a mortgage company in Fishers, might disagree with the transparency part. He's thankful just to have tickets, but frustrated, too. While IU is clear about how to earn points, donors don't know where they rank.

This season, a point level that might have guaranteed prime seats at Assembly Hall just a couple of years ago now might tuck you under the balcony.

Seat assignments

When Smith received a letter from IU earlier suggesting he buy football season tickets to earn 125 Priority Points, he did just that. He bought five.

But when Smith got his hoops seat assignment, it was a little worse than last year. He's 39 rows off the court, one row higher than last year, and he was pushed about 10 seats over into a corner of Assembly Hall.

"It's just hard for me to know what's the breaking point to get better seats," Smith said. "That's the tough spot.

"You get in the building, but I'm not someone with crazy money or anything like that. It's just one of those things that I want to know: If I had donated $1,000 more, would I have received better seats?"

The Priority Points system has been around at least as long as Dolson has worked at the school -- 23 years.

Dolson said IU prefers the more fluid points system to a seat-license model, where buyers are required to donate a certain amount to retain their right to purchase tickets for a particular seat.

Something that might have hindered Smith in the Priority Points system is that he's had his tickets only three years. He bought them when the program nose-dived following the departure of coach Kelvin Sampson and many fans dropped their tickets.

Dolson said donors are informed where they rank in Priority Points before every football and basketball season, but he concedes those levels can change quickly with high demand. He said IU would like to eventually have a website that allows donors to check their status in real-time, but such a system hasn't been developed.

North Carolina has the same issues at the Smith Center that IU has at Assembly Hall. Senior associate athletic director John Montgomery said about 6,000 season tickets go to people who funded construction of the arena in the 1980s.

Fans can keep those tickets forever -- provided they pay for them each season and make an annual gift -- and can pass them along to family members.

About 1,500 other tickets in the lower bowl are called scholarship seats, where fans must make a $500,000 donation. They have five years to pay that donation off, Montgomery said. The more they donate, the better the seat.

"That," Montgomery said, "is competitive."

Fans can check their point balances online, but they can't compare it to what other donors have given. Athletic department staffers, he said, do consult with donors who want to know how much they need to give to improve to their seats.

"With the cost of tuition rising at every school in the country," Montgomery said, "we want to raise as much money as we can to fund that."

Purdue donors can go online to see how they compare to other donors, said Chris Peludat, assistant athletic director in charge of ticketing and marketing. But it's only a percentile comparison.

Paying the price

IU season ticket holder Dustin Mahurin, a southside resident and the owner of a cable drilling company, shares the frustration about not knowing where he ranks in Priority Points.

"It is confusing to understand," said Mahurin, who was surprised to learn he would be moved a few rows back in section E this year. "They don't give you a breakdown. They tell you how many points, but they don't tell you if you have this many points, you'll be guaranteed seats here."

But he and Smith, the Fishers mortgage company owner, know this is IU basketball. Ticket issues come with the demand of passionate fans.

Smith has family members living in Colorado and he remembers them being asked to purchase tickets to Denver Nuggets basketball games so they could keep their season tickets to Colorado Avalanche hockey games when the team was among the best in the league.